Attorneys for a condemned Texas inmate who won a reprieve that blocks his scheduled execution are telling an appeals court to keep the reprieve in place.

State attorneys want the stay of execution lifted and 44-year-old Jonathan Green sent to the death chamber Wednesday evening in Huntsville.

Green's attorneys told the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Tuesday that proceeding with the lethal injection would deny Green's right to develop his competency claim in federal court. They contend Green is mentally incompetent for execution for the 2000 slaying of a 12-year-old Southeast Texas girl.